


I Need to Hear You (Say Those Words)

by artform_virtue



Series: To Love is to Grow and Other Life Lessons [1]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - No Murder Mystery, Angst with a Happy Ending, Archie Andrews is an Actual Puppy, Archie Sings a Love Song, Breakfast, Campfires, Character Development, Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Relationship, Everybody Lives and Everybody is Happy, F/F, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff and Angst, Foursome - F/F/M/M, Jughead Has Abandonment Issues, Jughead Jones Learns to Love Again, Love Confessions, Lowkey Weak-Ass Characterization, M/M, Mild Smut, Movie Night, Multi, Nicknames, OT4, POV Third Person Limited, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-29 20:45:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12638826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artform_virtue/pseuds/artform_virtue
Summary: Veronica, Betty, and Archie start saying "I love you." Jughead has a crisis.





	I Need to Hear You (Say Those Words)

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Say It First" by Sam Smith.  
> Betaed by AllonsyAlonso, without whom I would be nowhere.

The first time Veronica says it, they’re having sex.

 

It’s actually a day they all told one another they weren’t going to have sex, were going to utilize the empty Andrews’ home in other, more sophisticated ways. But then Archie got hard at the sight of Betty and Veronica literally just hugging and things sort of devolved from there.

 

Archie is inside of Veronica, trying his best to last as long as possible, as always, after Betty and Jughead have already finished. Betty sucks on Veronica’s left breast and Jughead had been doing the same a moment ago, but now holds Veronica’s thigh open in an effort to see where Archie is pounding into her body. The skin of her thigh is soft beneath his fingers and the most incredible sounds tumble from her mouth and he can’t believe someone as beautiful as Veronica Lodge would ever want anything to do with someone like him. She pulls his mouth to hers via her hand on his jaw and they kiss so deeply that Jug can hardly breathe.

 

They break apart suddenly after she comes for the second time, gasping, “Oh, my god, I love you!” and then he really can’t breathe.

 

Betty immediately moves to kiss her lips, and Archie stills as he comes too, and they’re all smiling so hard at the proclamation that Jughead ends up doing the same. Still, a violent plunging in his stomach detracts from the moment. Is that what love feels like?

 

“Ronnie…” Betty says, grinning and skating a hand across the other girl’s cheek. They kiss again and there’s a lot of tongue and Jughead gets distracted by the sight until Archie grips his shoulder clumsily and fumbles him into a searing kiss and it goes like this until they all drift to sleep, crammed in Archie’s bed, too warm and too happy for their own good.

 

***

 

The first time Archie says it, it’s the morning after.

 

Jughead wakes up in his arms to the sound of Veronica and Betty giggling as they reenter the room. Neither can stand morning breath and always try to brush their teeth as soon as they wake up. They wiggle back under the covers with the two boys, and Jughead smiles at the two sets of cold feet tickling his legs. Archie had already been awake, scrolling through his phone, which he puts down once their girlfriends return.

 

Then, all of the sudden, he sits up and says, “I love you.”

 

“Archiekins!” Veronica exclaims. “I love you too!”

 

Betty reaches up to run a hand through Archie’s red hair, down his sturdy jaw. Veronica makes sure to add, “All of you,” to her proclamation, interlacing her fingers with Jughead’s.

 

Archie smiles, in that painfully beautiful way he always does, and begins kissing all of them, one by one. It’s quick and desperate, and he gets caught up in sucking on Betty’s neck for a moment too long, but Jughead knows exactly what that’s like: to want nothing more than to be able to kiss all of them at once.

 

Betty and Veronica start complaining about Archie’s morning breath and kiss each other instead. Jughead hears Veronica murmur, “I love you,” into Betty’s mouth, and that swooping fear is back. He suddenly feels too hot under the covers.

 

“When’s your dad getting home, Arch?” Jughead asks.

 

Archie takes his eyes away from their girlfriends at looks at him carefully, like he can’t yet process what he’s seeing and hearing. Small bags sit under his eyes, but on Archie they’re just handsome. He begins to lean in, smirking.

 

“I don’t know,” Archie rumbles, glancing down at Jug’s lips like they’re something to eat. “Why?”

 

“I thought I’d make you guys breakfast,” Jughead answers quickly, pulling away and getting out of bed. “And I don’t think you want him finding us all in bed together.”

 

“You okay, Jug?” Betty asks, hand still threaded in their girlfriend’s hair.

 

“Fine,” Jughead mutters as he escapes the room. Along with his fear, now there is guilt.

 

Downstairs, he cracks a few eggs, which have only been cooking for a minute or two when his partners emerge, now all fully clothed. Archie comes up behind him, resting his head on his shoulder and wrapping his arms around his waist. Veronica appears by his side, too, kissing at his neck briefly before sitting down at the kitchen table.

 

Archie makes them all toast to go with the eggs, and they sit and talk for hours, no lull in conversation, the only complaint being that Betty’s feet are cold. When Fred walks through the door that afternoon, Archie has Betty’s feet pulled into his lap while he rubs them, but other than that they manage to be inconspicuous enough that Jughead thinks he doesn’t even realize they all spent the night.

 

The rest of the morning, no one mentions Jughead’s odd behavior or tells him they’re in love with him, so things go okay.

 

***

 

The first time Betty says it, they’re watching a movie.

 

Or, they’re supposed to be watching a movie, but Veronica will not get off of her phone, and Archie will not let go of the fact that Veronica will not get off of her phone.

 

“Ronnie!” he whisper shouts at her for the third time that night. Jughead sighs exasperatedly, like he actually cares about the plot of _Pitch Perfect 2_.

 

“Archiekins!” she responds.

 

“You’re the one who picked this god awful movie, so why don’t you actually watch it!”

 

Betty giggles at them from where she lies against Jughead’s chest.

 

Veronica leans across Betty and Jug to pinch Archie’s cheeks at the other end of the couch. “But why would I do that when it gets you so riled—” She’s cut off by her own indignant screech and subsequent laughter as Jughead pulls her down on top of him and begins to tickle her sides.

 

“Juggy!” she squeals through peels of laughter. Archie launches himself into the attack as well. Betty ends up squished between them all, still giggling, forgetting the movie completely.

 

Veronica twists herself out of at least Archie’s grasp to turn on Betty. “Oh, you think this is funny, huh, Betts?!”

 

“Veronica-ha!” Betty shouts as her girlfriend grips her stomach.

 

Jughead, unable to help himself, starts laughing too, so hard his face hurts, until Betty proclaims, “I love you, guys.”

 

Veronica grins widely, saying, “I love you, too, babe, but that’s not gonna get you out of this!” In attempt to get a better angle, Veronica almost tumbles to the floor, prompting Archie and Jughead to each grab a limb and haul her back up. She lies across their laps now, all of them out of breath, the movie only background noise.

 

“I love you all, too,” Archie says, still smiling.

 

“Me too,” Veronica adds.

 

Jughead feels sick.

 

***

 

To make matters infinitely worse, Archie writes them a _song_ about how much he loves them.

 

It’s all about how “from their fingers to their toes, he’ll love them in ways no one knows.” And Archie is such a dreamboat with his guitar and angelic voice that Jug can only hate himself for feeling nauseous as he listens. Veronica and Betty are looking at him like he hung the goddamn mood and Jughead is terrified. He’s scared he’ll end up running out of the house as soon as his boyfriend finishes serenading them.

 

He can’t believe himself: loved so fiercely by all these people and all he can give them is cowardice.

 

However, as soon as the song ends, Veronica says, “Damn, Arch, you’re really trying to get your dick sucked, aren’t you?”

 

This, of course, leads to Archie actually getting his dick sucked, which leads to sex, which lead to Jughead not having to run away after all.

 

Sex is easy. He knows sex, knows his partners and their bodies. Physical pleasure is nothing to fear because he knows how to feel it. Emotional pleasure, though—safety and happiness and _love_ —that’s a different story. That’s something he stopped letting himself feel a long time ago.

 

***

 

Later in the week, Jughead and Veronica are napping together. Betty had a student council meeting after school and Archie is at football practice, and anyways napping is Jug’s and Veronica’s Thing. With Betty, he studies, with Archie, he plays videogames, and with Veronica, he naps. These Things—these moments of specialized, quiet, and comfortable companionship—are one of the many constants Jughead’s partners give him to depend upon. He can always count on being invited over to Veronica’s apartment on rainy afternoons to doze in her giant four-poster bed. He can always count on these safe, warm places with these safe, warm people.

 

Right now, he has one arm wrapped around her shoulders and the other tucked beneath his own head. Veronica lies mostly on top of him, always needing and wanting as much physical contact as she can get from the three of them. Her arm is draped across his waist, her hand playing with the skin above his waistline, stirring up pleasant butterflies in his stomach.

 

It thunders loudly and Veronica murmurs, “I wonder if Archie’s practice got canceled.”

 

“Probably just moved inside,” Jughead mutters, eyes still closed. He feels Veronica press a chaste kiss to his chest and then lean over him to grab her phone from the nightstand.

 

After another silent minute, Veronica nudges him as she says, “Aww, Juggy, look.”

 

Jughead cracks one eye open to see what it is he’s supposed to be looking at. Veronica holds her phone in front of his face. He takes it from her, opening both eyes now to get a better look. On it is an Instagram post of Betty’s, featuring the four of them at a party from the previous weekend. The caption reads “My loves,” with a string of heart emojis. Jughead grins, looking back at the picture for a second more.

 

As he hands Veronica her phone she says, “I love you all so much.”

 

He rubs his hand across her back and replies, “Yeah.”

 

Since the first time she said it almost a week ago, the words don’t scare Jughead half to death, don’t make him want to disintegrate into a non-molecular being and float into the Jetstream. Yet he still finds himself swallowing around a lump in his throat, something holding him back from saying what he knows to be true.

 

***

 

The first time Jughead says it, they’re outside.

 

They’re curled up around the fire pit in the Coopers’ backyard. Alice, who has been weirdly accepting of their relationship ever since Betty finally caved and told her the truth, is for once not home to hover over the quartet.

 

Betty holds Jug’s hand where it dangles in between their chairs. Veronica tells Archie a quiet story about meeting the quarterback of the New York Giants a couple years ago, but Jughead’s having trouble listening. The fire and his own turbulent thoughts are enough to keep him occupied. He must’ve told himself no less than twenty times that today would be the day he’d finally just rip the band-aid off and tell them: tell them how he was sorry and damaged and that he really loved them so much it hurt.

 

He thinks himself right into an anxious state and has to pull his hand away from Betty’s for all its sweating. At that moment, something makes him standup abruptly, cutting Veronica’s story short as his partners turn to look at him.

 

“I have to tell you guys something,” Jughead chokes out.

 

“Juggy—” Betty tries to say, but he doesn’t let her finish.

 

“No, this—this is something I have to say.” He swallows nothing and suddenly feels like he may pass out.

 

“My whole life,” Jug begins, “people have left me. And eventually I got used to it, and it doesn’t really bother me much anymore which I why I don’t need anyone feeling bad for me, but I—” He takes a slow breath. “It’s still hard for me to get attached to people. I don’t like letting myself feel very much for anyone because I know how it’ll end. They’ll leave they always do.”

 

He spares a moment to glance up his girlfriends and boyfriend. Betty is biting her lip and Veronica is focusing almost too hard on him; Archie looks for all the world like he may cry.

 

“But now,” Jughead goes on, “I have you guys. And you’re all…” He takes another deep breath, bracing himself against a new reality. “I’m in love with you. I love you all so much I can hardly—I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to say it.”

 

“Jug,” Betty says not a second too soon, “we love you, too.”

 

“So much,” Veronica adds, standing to hug him tightly. “I love you so much.”

 

Betty stands, too, to be closer to them. Jughead looks over at their boyfriend.

 

“Arch?” he asks.

 

Archie is gripping his knees and staring at the fire, but looks up when his name is called.

 

“I thought…” he begins, eventually standing and walking towards his partners as well. “When you first started saying all that I thought you were breaking up with us.”

 

“Never,” Jughead says, reaching for Archie’s hand. His brow is furrowed and he really doesn’t mean to sound as earnest as he does, as vulnerable.

 

“Thank god,” Veronica mutters from where she’s leaned against Jughead’s chest. Archie slips an arm around his waist as well, Betty holding both his hand and Veronica’s hip.

 

They stand by the fire in that position for longer than Jughead can judge. None of them seem to want to let him go. It feels good.


End file.
